04/27/2013

Last week, I put out a simple 5 question survey to college dance professors around the United States to start a national conversation about iTunes U Courses. Seventy professors responded to the survey, and the results are shared here.

Survey Results

-12% of survey respondents currently use iTunes U for one or more courses. (If you search iTunes U you might not find many courses due to some having "private access" settings.)

-Survey respondents would like to see a sample course on iTunes U. Respondents also expressed various concerns, which are describe below.

Through iTunes itself on a computer or tablet, you can access iTunes U. Now, thousands of college courses are able to be viewed via the internet. You can watch lectures or see class notes, syllabi, video links, and more. Itunes U has opened up "education" to many more participants and also has provided access for more students and educators to share with each other.

The whole subject brings up a lot of questions and concerns for college dance professors. Let's tackle some here.

1. ONLINE LEARNING. The topic of "online learning" for college dance courses is now an interesting topic for a subject about the body in real time. My point of writing about iTunes U is not really to focus on online learning, but more about using the iTunes U platform within college courses in year 2013. If you are interested in the subject of online dance courses, I suggest that you look at the courses the National Dance Education Organization is now offering. Click here.

2. OUTSOURCING THE JOB OF TEACHING. One professor who completed the survey expressed concern about "outsourcing" teaching jobs by using online courses. In our field, we have so few current books and textbooks for dance educators to use in courses, and the information displayed on iTunes U can fill some of this need. I am proposing that more content get placed on iTunes U that will be used around the country in actual college courses on college campuses. As another respondent also noted, the issues of accreditation and oversight of the iTunes U "dance content" is a whole issue itself now as well.

3. PROPRIETARY FEELINGS ABOUT OUR COURSES. This is definitely a big concern. If you make your iTunes U course public, you are sharing your syllabus, grading system, videos and articles from your class, etc. Are you willing to put this information out there for free? All iTunes U courses are free.

4. MAKING OUR COURSES AND CONTENT EASIER TO ACCESS FOR STUDENTS. Here is my main point to consider. The iTunes U platform can make your college course paperless. If you set up a course, you can have your syllabus, class notes, videos, and articles all right there in one contained place. Your students can access this information from their own computer or tablet. You no longer have to get a "reader" printed for your course. It is also very fluid --- you can add, delete, or edit content at any time.

5. A PUBLIC OR A PRIVATE SETTING FOR YOUR COURSE. You can make an iTunes U course for one of your classes, and set it up that only students in the course see the material. You do not need to make it public to the world (similar to when you set up a Google Doc and select who you share it with).

6. ARCHIVING YOUR WORK FOR FUTURE YEARS. Using iTunes U is a perfect way to house the information for your courses, and you can use the same material year after year. You also always have editing abilities. Maybe next year in your dance education course you change the articles the students read, for example. Edits are easy. Using iTunes U could streamline your "prep" from year to year.

Find out more about iTunes U in this February 2013 article. Click here.

For interested college professors, I suggest:

1. Browse iTunes U for 10 minutes. To get to iTunes U:

-Open iTunes Store

-Click on the iTunes U tab at the top, with the other options such as Music, Movies, and Books

-Start by clicking and browsing on some of the featured courses.

-Search under "dance" and see what is there. (You will find that there is little posted.)

2. Dedicate time this summer to build out your course. If you are motivated to make this happen, this summer is an ideal time. This might mean scanning some of the articles, hyperlinking some of the videos, etc. You could even bring together a small group of motivated colleagues from your college or from the community to work together in the same space for a few sessions to learn together.

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My personal goal is to build out two public iTunes U courses. The first one would be for "teaching artists" in general, a Becoming a Teaching Artist online resource for new teachers around the United States. The other idea I am pursuing is building an iTunes U course of improvisation activities you can explore with middle school, high school, and college age students.

If you have a course that you would be willing to give limited access to, for interested colleagues, please write in at randalldanceprojects@gmail.com. Thank you!